Retreats

Answer these questions: 

1. What will make it successful for the organization? 
2. What will make it successful for each participant?  
3. What can everyone in the room learn? 
4. What problems are you trying to solve? 
    

This is an important part of the planning. Options to consider:

• Entire organization/office/department. 
• All managers/anyone with supervisory responsibility 
• All direct reports to office/department head. 
   

This will help determine the options available to you.

We can share ideas of good places both on and off campus to hold staff retreats.

• What do we mean by “good” location? Ideally, it’s outside of your regular offices, it's comfortable, and it's well-lit to maximize creative thinking and minimize the usual day-to-day and hour-to-hour distractions. 
• Space and temperature really matter for a long meeting. Folks need to be comfortable. 

Pick a date at least two months in advance to ensure maximum staff participation. 

At least annually; some offices conduct them on a quarterly basis, or every six months.

Force the fun! Start with a fun icebreaker (google icebreaker if you’re having writer’s block). And include a fun group activity at the end of the retreat. “Fun” is in the eye of the beholder, but we recommend activities that will be both enjoyable and bond-building, and have nothing to do with the work agenda (a meal; a trip to a cool venue; etc). 

Design your agenda well in advance, and consult with colleagues about it. Good rules to follow and templates to use: 

• Limit the topics that you’re doing deep discussions on. For a retreat that’s occurring on one day, deep discussions should be limited to one or two blocks on the agenda, allowing for 90-120 minutes of discussion on each major topic (example: one morning discussion session, one afternoon discussion session).
• Ensure breaks and food (if you don’t have a budget for food, consider a potluck). 
• Communicate - and ask for participation - ahead of the meeting. Examples: share the goal(s), ask for participants to read something inspiring, and/or create assignments. 
• Think about the lead facilitator. Ideally, it is not the head of the department; that person can offer their leadership and participation, but it’s both onerous for the principal, and/or could stifle discussion. Offsite facilitators can help. It’s not mission-critical to bring on a facilitator from outside campus, but for some teams, it can be helpful. 
• Set “community ground rules” in advance. This should be a safe space. People should expect to feel respected, and OK to feel vulnerable. Be clear about what that entails.  You should also have an opinion on cell phones and laptops at the table (if you don’t care, that’s still an opinion!) 
• Consider outside readings that help direct the discussion. An article paired with a worksheet can be enough to drive creative thinking with the appropriate amount of lead time. 
• Most retreats should result in the outlines of at least one significant plan; an update to your overall strategic plan, for example, or a plan to tackle a major issue or challenge. 
   

Debrief. Use a tool so participants can assess and reflect on the session. It can be as simple as a post-it note they hand in at the end with a note on the highlights and challenges of the session.